The Blog of International Judicial Assistance | By Ted Folkman of Murphy & King

Case of the Day: Acushnet Co. v. Thiede

Posted on October 11, 2013

The case of the day is Acushnet Co. v. Thiede (D. Ariz. 2013). Acushnet sought leave to serve process on Dualwin Sporting Goods Co. via email in China. The judge granted the motion. Much of the short decision is taken up with citations to cases approving service by email, but lest anyone get the wrong idea, the true basis for the decision was the fact that Acushnet’s investigation had revealed that Dualwin had “falsified its physical address data.” When a defendant’s address is unknown, the Hague Service Convention simply has no application (see Art. 1). So the case is rightly decided, but as with all cases approving service by email in Hague Service Convention countries that have objected to service by postal channels, use caution before citing!

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